Bottom of a Bottle
by MidnightWritings
Summary: Itachi has a drinking problem, and Kisame knows the cause. It's always a girl, isn't it? Itachi/OC
1. Prologue

Itachi didn't know why he drank so much.

Well, that's a lie, he does know why. But he doesn't want to admit it.

"Itachi-san," Kisame says clapping a hand down on his partner's shoulder. "I think you've had enough," He tries to take the bottle out of the younger's hand.

Itachi's eyes flash and suddenly Kisame's stumbling backwards a few feet, clutching his nose.

Tonight's their wedding night and Kisame knows it. He knows it well from all the marks on the wall of their hotel room when he went down to get ice.

When Itachi gets mad, he gets crazy mad.

Itachi doesn't look at Kisame as he brings the bottle of strong sake to his lips and takes a long sip, ignoring the usual pleasantry of using a small cup for drinking. He gulps down a few mouthfuls before he sets the bottle down on the nightstand, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. He lies back onto his back and stares at the ceiling, cracked with years.

"Itachi…" Kisame says quietly, trying hard not to shake his head. He looks down at his own hand, the wedding band on his left ring finger shining in almost a mocking way. He twirls it around with his thumb, seeing the engraving of his name and his wife's around it. "You know you're not going to find happiness at the bottom of that bottle."

"I'm not looking for happiness," He says quietly. "I'm looking for an escape,"


	2. Chapter 1

Bottom of a Bottle Ch 1

_Five Years before Prologue _

"Why did I agree to come with you?" Itachi asks sounding bored out of his mind. Kisame is taking him to Konoha over their vacation. Two weeks and Kisame convinced him to spend it in the one place Itachi would never want to be.

"Because you want meet my girlfriend, soon to be fiancée," He says grinning insanely, patting the ring in his pocket. "You're here for moral support. And, who knows, you may meet a girl yourself," Itachi gives him a nonchalant look as the two stop outside the village gates, changing their appearances. Itachi makes himself a few inches taller and gives himself cropped brown hair and eyes to match. Kisame shortens himself to a little taller than Itachi with shaggy dirty-blond hair and green eyes. This is their normal appearance changes.

"Papers," The two ninja at the front gate intone as the S-ranked in disguise fish out the papers they'd "borrowed." They're looked over carelessly and given back along with an oh-so-meaningful "have a nice day."

"Amai-chan said she'd be at home with her best friend, Yuki. You may like her, recently single~" Kisame sing-songs with a slight grin. Itachi doesn't give him a response, only glaring at him out of the corner of his eye.

"A woman would only cause drama in my life that I don't need," He says coolly.

"Yeah, yeah, that's what I thought but then I met Amai-chan…" The shark demon man says going off on a tangent about how great his girlfriend was. Itachi zones him out easily. It isn't long before the two reach Amai's apartment, which is a cheerful building near the center of town. Kisame ducks under the main door, leading Itachi up the second floor and knocking on the door.

"Who is it?" A girl's voice rings from the other side of the door.

"Hey baby," Kisame says with a softness to his tone that surprised Itachi. He'd never even imagined his partner of so many years could sound like that. The door flies open and a petite blonde that only comes up to Kisame's chest flies out, wrapping her arms around him.

"Hi," She says shyly kissing him quickly before her gaze turns to Itachi. Her eyes light up and she grins, hugging him as well. The Uchiha murderer tenses but one look from Kisame stops him.

"Hello," Itachi says tensely, clearly not happy about the contact.

"You must be Itachi," She says brightly. "Kisa-kun has talked about you a lot." She adds before turning her head and bellowing "YUKI! COME MEET MY BOYFRIEND AND HIS FRIEND!"

"Coming, coming," A voice grumbles from the back rooms of the house. A redhead is still grumbling a little when she reaches the front door. Amai smiles at her and Yuki shoves one hand into her back pocket and sticks the other out to shake. "Akoi, Yuki. Nice to meet you,"

Yuki is an ANBU, according to what Amai has told Kisame that was then passed on to Itachi. She's taller than the blonde and the one thing that really catches his eyes is the fact that she's blind in one of hers.

"Nice to meet you," Itachi says shaking her hand.

…line…line…line…line…

_Two Weeks Later_

"So…you're leaving in a couple minutes," Yuki says looking at him with her good eye.

"Yeah," Itachi says nodding. He's not really one for long goodbye speeches. Though he had to admit, he and Yuki had been getting pretty close. They didn't really have a choice, though. After Kisame had popped the question and Amai had accepted, the duo had left their friends alone a lot.

"It's been fun," Yuki murmurs, looking out at the sunset. Itachi nods again. There's a long pause before she looks at him and asks "Are you going to come back?"

"Most likely," Itachi says quietly. She leans over and kisses him quickly, her lips lingering for a second. Itachi's eyes are huge. Sure, many girls had tried to kiss him before, a couple had succeeded, but this was the only kiss that had made his head spin. He knows he'll remember their first kiss.

"Make sure you tell me the next time you're in town," She says before walking off.

…line…line…line…line…

_Five weeks later_

Itachi isn't able to get back to Konoha for over a month. His line of work makes vacation hard to come by and relationships near impossible. But he and Yuki write letters to each other using pseudonyms as much as they can. It's hard, but it's better than nothing.

The Uchiha feels something he hadn't felt in years as he walks up to Yuki's apartment. He feels nervous. He takes a deep breath and knocks on her door, adjusting the suit he's wearing as he hears her footsteps.

"Itachi," She says, sounding surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"I was in the neighborhood and wanted to see you," He says sounding a little less than cold.

"In a suit?" She raises one eyebrow, but she's smiling. He smiles slightly back.

"Are you busy? Maybe we could go get something to eat?" Itachi asks, almost sounding shy.

"I would really like that," She says, her eyes lighting up.

…line…line…line…line…

It's the first time they've seen each other in five weeks, and they're fighting. It's not even a good fight; it's not even really about anything. They're both yelling and screaming at each other but in the end, Itachi leaves. He storms out, leaving Yuki crying at home. Itachi didn't go back to the base after their fight. No, he goes to a bar and drinks way more than he should.

The rest of the night is a blur; really nothing sticks out except the fact that Itachi bawled his eyes out to the bar tender, something he's embarrassed to even remember.

What happened the night before comes rushing back to him when Itachi wakes up in a hotel room and he feels his heart drop into his stomach. The fight… It all comes rushing back to him. He sighs and puts his head in his hands before getting up and getting ready. He has to go see her again.

When Yuki comes back from work that night, she's greeted by Itachi, who has flowers. Tiger lilies. She loves tiger lilies. She's still pretty mad though, so she puts them down on the counter and sits down on the couch. He sits next to her, not too close.

They start talking. They talk for over an hour before Itachi dares to hug her. She tenses for a second but does hug him back. She whispers something in his ear and his eyes widen, surprised. He does nod though. She takes his hand and they go into her room.

…line…line…line…line…

Things go fine for almost a year after that, the couple seeing each other as much as they could and really being totally happy to be with each other. Then comes the oh-so-innocent question. She asks what he did for a living, after never really finding out. He'd always dodged the question before, being a little vague and changing the subject. This time, she really wants to know and won't let him get away with just a flippant reply. They start fighting again, this time about how he never talks to her and how they still have so many secrets. Then he asks the question he'd always wanted to know the answer to. He asks her why she never turned him in.

"If I turned you in, Kisame would be turned in too. I could never do that to Amai-chan. And besides that, I love you." She shakes her head. "Can't you have the decency to tell me what exactly it is you do? They don't tell us more than you need to know in the ANBU, and I've never gone after an Akatsuki."

He caves after that and tells her everything, from the down and dirty details of exactly what he does, who he is, and who he works for. She looks shocked at first, then appalled, and then she starts screaming at him.

This time, their fight goes way overboard and ends up with Yuki screaming at him to get out and that she never wants to see him again.

…line…line…line…line…

Three years pass.

Three insanely long years pass.

Itachi deteriorates and drinks most of the time. He always has a bottle of something on him.

Kisame got him into a program to help with his drinking problem around the same time that he found Amai was pregnant. His reason being something along the lines of "If you're going to be Uncle Itachi, you need to get your act together".

He actually does a lot better until he sees Yuki on one of his missions. She's in the woods, with Hatake Kakashi. He's down on one knee, a ring box in his hand. She's crying and nodding and laughing as she tackles him, planting kisses all over his face.

That night his drinking starts back up full force. It's bad, worse than before.

A year later, he's gone to pieces.

Itachi doesn't know why he drinks so much.

Well, that's a lie, he does know why. But he doesn't want to admit it.

"Itachi-san," Kisame says clapping a hand down on his partner's shoulder. "I think you've had enough," He tries to take the bottle out of the younger's hand.

Itachi's eyes flash and suddenly Kisame's stumbling backwards a few feet, clutching his nose.

Tonight's their wedding night and Kisame knows it. He knows it well from all the marks on the wall of their hotel room when he went down to get ice.

When Itachi gets mad, he gets crazy mad.

Itachi doesn't look at Kisame as he brings the bottle of strong sake to his lips and takes a long sip, ignoring the usual pleasantry of using a small cup for drinking. He gulps down a few mouthfuls before he sets the bottle down on the nightstand, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. He lies back onto his back and stares at the ceiling, cracked with years.

"Itachi…" Kisame says quietly, trying hard not to shake his head. He looks down at his own hand, the wedding band on his left ring finger shining in almost a mocking way. He twirls it around with his thumb, seeing the engraving of his name and his wife's around it. "You know you're not going to find happiness at the bottom of that bottle."

"I'm not looking for happiness," He says quietly. "I'm looking for an escape,"


	3. Chapter 2

Bottom of a Bottle Ch 2

The church where Yuki's wedding is to take place is just beautiful. The flowers are tiger lilies and daisies. Everything is perfect and ready for a wedding no one will soon forget. Amai, playing maid of honor, goes down the aisle with Kisame escorting her after Anko and Ibiki and Kurenai and Asuma, bride's maids and groom's men. Gai, the best man, marched down the aisle behind them, a hanky pressed to his eye as he whimpers quietly about how youthful their marriage will be. Chubby-cheeked ring-bearer Michi with his blonde-ish hair and blue skin holds hands with Kurenai and Asuma's daughter, Keimei, the flower girl. Both are three years old. Keimei has her father's hair, but her mother's eyes. Her spiky hair is in two pigtails on either side of her head, tied up with two pink ribbons.

Michi has the rings proudly on a pillow, a small length of string holding them there. Keimei struggles a little to throw the flower petals out of her basket and ends up dumping them at the very end, provoking a few giggles from the audience watching. Yuki's father walks her down the aisle after everyone has stood for the bride. Kakashi's visible eye widens and everyone can tell he's smiling madly.

The priest starts talking about how wonderful the couple is, how the heavens have smiled upon the happy couple, and how their life together will be wonderful. "If there is anyone that thinks this couple should not be together for all eternity, please speak now or forever hold your peace,"

"I have a complaint," A slurred voice from the back of the church says too loudly. "T-These two people ca-can't be married," Itachi Uchiha is in the building. Kakashi instantly has a kunai in his hand, stepping in front of his fiancée.

"What are you doing here, Itachi?" Yuki says lifting her dress and stepping down towards him.

"You can't marry him," He looks like a kicked puppy.

"Why not?" She asks softly. Itachi looks like he's about to answer but Amai whacks him with her bouquet of flowers.

"Get out or we're going to get the ANBU guard here," She hisses, eyes flaming. "This is Yuki's day. If you're not gone by the time I count to four-"

"Hey, hey," Kisame says putting a hand on her shoulder. "I've got this, okay?" Amai nods, her fists clenched. "Go stand next to Yuki, okay?" Amai nods again and steps back. Yuki shakes her head slowly, disbelievingly.

"Just don't let the ANBU guard get their hands on him, okay?" There are a couple of muffled gasps. "I don't want the rest of my wedding day to be ruined as well." Kakashi nods and squeezes her shoulder gently as Kisame takes Itachi and throws him over his shoulder. Itachi starts yelling and making a huge drunken scene.

Kisame sighs, obviously not liking this. "Itachi-san, you're acting childish."

"I don't want her marrying him," He says with an obvious pout that Kisame can almost envision.

"I know you don't but this day isn't about you, it's about Yuki. If you come back, you'll be arrested. Go sleep this off," Kisame sets him down, turns him towards their hotel room, and gives him a little shove. Itachi waits until he's gone then goes back and, like a too cliché scene from a movie, it starts to rain as he watches the wedding.


	4. Chapter 3

Bottom of a Bottle Ch 3

"Drinking isn't going to make her love you," Kisame says, throwing his suit jacket on a chair in Amai's apartment when he gets back from the wedding reception. Itachi had gone back there, not remembering where his hotel was. He's still drunk.

"It makes it hurt less," He slurs, sounding a little pathetic, as he raises the bottle top to his mouth. "It's like Novocain for your heart,"

"It's also like cyanide for your liver," Kisame retorts, taking the bottle out of his weak grip and setting it on the table. "Stop drinking,"

"You're not my mom," He slurs and reaches for the bottle again, his hand shaking.

"Look, I know you miss her, okay? I get it," The fish-man says as Itachi knocks over the bottle, his eyes filling with tears at the spilled "cyanide."

"No you don't, you have Amai and Michi." He almost-whimpers. Kisame rolls his eyes and sits down at the table across from him.

"That doesn't mean I haven't lost her before," The taller of the two says but shakes his head. "Look, she's married now. But to a ninja. If you wait long enough, Kakashi will die and you'll have a chance again. But you _have_ to stop drinking."

"Why?" Itachi looks up looking like a kicked puppy.

"Because if you want to win her back, you have to be alive to do it."

_The End_


End file.
